CORRESPONDENCE. KUMEU LOAN.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 November 1911, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

KUMEU LOAN.

To The Editor. Sir, —In reply to a letter from Mr D. McDonald of Rewiti, I crave space in your paper to correct a wrong impression it is likely and INTENDED to give to the Ratepayers on the Loan proposals. I "held meetings at Woodhill and Waimauku in September, none of which Mr McDonald attended; but hearing he was misrepresenting the Loan proposals I called a meeting last week to give Mr McDonald every opportunity of hearing my side of the question, and answered every question put to me by Mr McDonald.

In the first place there will be no increase of rates. The £10,000 loan will be 36^ years redeeming itself; interest V/i per cent, Y± per cent sinking fund, and will take 5 years to be spent. Arrangments will be made with the Government to borrow £2000 a year,, and the interest is only payable on the money as borrowed.

At present the riding strikes a l^d rate ; the J^d rate will be made a special rate and the Id an ordinary rate.

The ratepayers will have all the main roads metalled, and bridges which are timber and fast decaying, made of concrete and steel; which will then leave the Id rate for side roads. At the present time it is impossible to give these roads the attention they should have.

Re Ohirangi Bridge and road. I stated that the new road would be about 24 mile long from Ohirangi to Helensville township, and that the route Mr McDonald spoke of, even if shorter than the present Swing Bridge Road, would be an expensive one to acquire as the MUD FLAT was worth £40 an acre and the riparian rights would be excessive, and also, as this Ohirangi. Road had been under discussion for the past 5 years, <why did he not bring the matter up before? SILENCE on his part, not mine.

Re Waimauku bridge, which he states ife practically new, was built 30 years ago and is too low for present requirements, as the settlers are unable to get over in flood time.

The scheme is practically a County one and links up with every riding and any portion left out breakes a link in the chain. There is not at present a good metal road to Helensville from Auckland and this scheme will give a long felt want.

I am sorry that Mr McDonald brings-personalities into the discussion, and from the tone of his letter one would imply that he was a pessimist and not progressive ; for it is a well-known fact that good metalled roads induce settlement. The north is undoubtedly a dairying district, and such being the case, metal roads are essential.

However, it is simply a matter for the Ratepayers to decide on the Bth November, whether they have good roads and permanent bridges within 5 years without any increase of the l^d rate, or are going on for the next 20 years as they have been doing in the past, without any prospect of getting out of the mud. Yours etc., Vincent Kerr-Taylor. Councillor Kumeu Riding.

TO THE EDIT.OB. Sir, —Re Mr McDonald's letter .of the 25th inst., I attended Mr Kerr-Taylor's meeting at the "Waimauku Hall on the 21st., and Mr McDonald's was the only dissenting voice, and I believe Mr Kerr-Taylor mentioned that out of all the meetings he held in connection with this £10,000 loan proposal it had been unanimously accepted as fairly and justly alloThe Waimauku West Coast road was the only road omitted, but, as he explained, he was able to get grants for that as a tourist Jfaad, and it was not necessary to *I)orrWfor that. Mr McDonald said the traffic did not warrant a better road between Waimauku and Rewiti and that we ought to -wait till the traffic came, then to put metal on the road. Now, Mr McDonald lives very near the station and asked and asked until he got HIS part metalled, and at -the meeting said he objected being ■taxed to pay. for this loan to metal other people's roads. Talk about selfish, why that does seem an -unfair thing to say. As for Mr Kerr-Taylor being silent on any matter, I admired the open way Ihe discussed the subject, but when Mr McDonald again and again, and yet again referred to one particular allocation, I think those who were present will agree with me that a true GENTLEMAN knew when to be silent. lam glad to think there are not many so unprogressive people in this district as Mr McDonald. We don't want to always stick m the mud, and here is ; our county member trying to pull (or help) us out of the mud and holes and ruts floods by borrowing £10,000

to metal the' main roads and build decent bridges for us, and he told us the rates would be lj^d, the same whether the loan was carried or not; surely EVERY one hasn't got thick heads. Why, we ought not to hesitate! What keeps a district back more than mud roads but I will leave the rest in hope some more abler pen will speak. Yours etc., Progressive

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your paper of the 25th inst., Mr McDonald adversely criticises Mr Kerr-Taylor's Loan proposals for the Kumeu Riding. Mr McDonald is a very good friend of mine and although we have had warm arguments before, he has shown the good stuff he is made of, by not allowing anything to interfere with that friendship. I will only speak of the part of the Riding I know. He says, "Waimauku Bridge (practically new) is to be cast aside and replaced in the latest concrete high style." Now it is not new. It was patched up about 10 years ago. It never was shaped to th 9 road, but lies across it. Every time we have a fresh it is under water, twice in the last few years it has lain two days unders water. \ Three months ago I was delayed a day with a truck load of sheep, -which was a serious matter to me. The embankment' is so low the metal is constantly washed off. By all means I say let US have it REPLACED IN THE LATEST CONCRETE HIGH STYLE. It will be money well laid out. Yours etc, Marcus Wilkins. Waikoukou.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —" Roads we re the primarynecessity of civilisation and of land settlement and without roads a population settled upon the land could not develop along the same lines as a city population, and must be to a large extent stunted in growth. The bridges over the rivers and streams were all rotten and dangerous to human life. Culverts were broken down and useless seas of mud existed until the summer was well advanced. In fact it was recognised that Waitemata continued to be the Cinderella among the Northern constituencies."

The above extract from Mr Napier's speech at Devonport as reported in Saturday's " Star " very truly and concisely puts before us the present condition of our roads and bridges and the opinion held about them by occasional visitors.

The Waitemata County Council has now made a move with a comprehensive loan proposal which, if carried out, will place us in a better position and remove the stagma so long attached to our so-called roads and it behoves all those wishing for progress and expansion to vote for it on Nov. 8.

That the proposals will meet with general approval can hardly be expected, there are always some dissatisfied fault finders, but they do give a very fair allocation of the money, and provide for roads most used or likely to be used when the lands now unoccupied, or only partly used, are brought into proper cultivation.

Farmers, more especially new comers, complain that we have no threshing mills, chaff cutters, etc., travelling about to do our work, in fact we are without any of these conveniences that settlers south of Auckland have enjoyed for years past, simply because our roads and bridges are too bad to permit any such machines to travel on them. Let us provide good roads and all these conveniences will come to us.

The principal feature of the scheme will be a good metalled road from Helensville to Auckland. This will open up the district and be an immense advantage to the settlers, and also induce visitors to drive up to the Hot Springs and the West Coast beach at Motatarua.

Some persons, wishing to defeat the scheme are circulating reports that the rates will be doubled. This is not correct, a very small rate, say l^d in the £, will be ample to commence with, and the loan being spread over five (5) years, means that the first payments will be paying themselves off before the last instalments are borrowed ; we shall never be paying interest on the full amount. The greater part of the money now spent in maintenance of our present so-called roads will be saved and may enable the present rates to be reduced.

The cry about this road or that bridge not being required, or that too much money is allocated for some particular place, must not be allowed to defeat the scheme. It should be clearly understood that all these amounts are approximate, no detail estimates have been made and in many instances it may be found that a less amount will suffice, the amounts given are the full amounts available ; more cannot be spent, but less may suffice.

In every district where money has been borrowed and good roads

made it has been a great success. It brings more settlers, more comforts, more social intercourse, and a general all-round improvement. Yours etc., CHAS. TARRANT. Woodhill.